The party has won 24 of the last 40 presidential elections and there have been a total of 19 Republican Presidents, the most from any one party,[29] the first was 16th President Abraham Lincoln, who served from 1861 until his assassination in 1865; and the most recent being 45th and current president Donald Trump, who took office on January 20, 2017.

As of 2018[update], the Republican Party is the primary party in power in the United States, holding the presidency (Donald Trump), majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, a majority of governorships and state legislatures (full control of 32/50, split control of five others).[30] Furthermore, the GOP presently hold "trifectas" (the executive branch and both chambers of the legislative branch) in a majority of states (26/50) and a "trifecta plus" (executive, legislative and judicial branches) at the federal level (as Republican Presidents appointed five of the nine Supreme Court justices).[31]

The first official party convention was held on July 6, 1854 in Jackson, Michigan.[34] By 1858, the Republicans dominated nearly all Northern states, the Republican Party first came to power in the elections of 1860 when it won control of both houses of Congress and its candidate, Abraham Lincoln, was elected President. It oversaw the preserving of the Union, the end of slavery and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction (1861–1877).

Early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan "free labor, free land, free men", which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio (and future Secretary of the Treasury and Chief Justice of the United States). "Free labor" referred to the Republican opposition to slave labor and belief in independent artisans and businessmen. "Free land" referred to Republican opposition to the plantation system whereby slave owners could buy up all the good farmland, leaving the yeoman independent farmers the leftovers. The party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power and the expansion of freedom.

Representing the fast-growing Western states, Lincoln won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency, the party took on the mission of preserving the Union and destroying slavery during the American Civil War and over Reconstruction. In the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket.

The Republican Party supported business generally, hard money (i.e. the gold standard), high tariffs to promote economic growth, high wages and high profits, generous pensions for Union veterans and (after 1893) the annexation of Hawaii. The Republicans have strong support from pietistic Protestants, but they resisted demands for Prohibition, as the Northern post-bellum economy boomed with heavy and light industry, railroads, mines, fast-growing cities and prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to sustain the fast growth.

The GOP was usually dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System (1850s–1890s). However, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers, the high McKinley Tariff of 1890 hurt the party and the Democrats swept to a landslide in the off-year elections, even defeating McKinley himself. The Democrats elected Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892, the election of William McKinley in 1896 was marked by a resurgence of Republican dominance that lasted (except for 1912 and 1916) until 1932. McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the Panic of 1893 and that Republicans would guarantee a sort of pluralism in which all groups would benefit.[35]

The Republican Civil War era program included free homestead farms, a federally subsidized transcontinental railroad, a national banking system, a large national debt, land grants for higher education, a new national banking system, a wartime income tax and permanent high tariffs to promote industrial growth and high wages. By the 1870s, they had adopted as well a hard money system based on the gold standard and fought off efforts to promote inflation through Free Silver,[36] they created the foundations of the modern welfare state through an extensive program of pensions for Union veterans.[37] Foreign-policy issues were rarely a matter of partisan dispute, but briefly in the 1893–1904 period the GOP supported imperialistic expansion regarding Hawaii, the Philippines and the Panama Canal.[38]

20th century

The 1896 realignment cemented the Republicans as the party of big business while Theodore Roosevelt added more small business support by his embrace of trust busting, he handpicked his successor William Howard Taft in 1908, but they became enemies as the party split down the middle. Taft defeated Roosevelt for the 1912 nomination and Roosevelt ran on the ticket of his new Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party. He called for social reforms, many of which were later championed by New Deal Democrats in the 1930s, he lost and when most of his supporters returned to the GOP they found they did not agree with the new conservative economic thinking, leading to an ideological shift to the right in the Republican Party.[39] The Republicans returned to the White House throughout the 1920s, running on platforms of normalcy, business-oriented efficiency and high tariffs, the national party avoided the prohibition issue after it became law in 1920.

The New Deal coalition of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt controlled American politics for most of the next three decades, excepting the two-term presidency of Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. Blacks moved into the Democratic Party during the New Deal era as they could vote in the North, but not in the South, after Roosevelt took office in 1933, New Deal legislation sailed through Congress and the economy moved sharply upward from its nadir in early 1933. However, long-term unemployment remained a drag until 1940; in the 1934 midterm elections, 10 Republican senators went down to defeat, leaving them with only 25 against 71 Democrats. The House of Representatives likewise had overwhelming Democratic majorities.

The Republican Party split into a majority "Old Right" (based in the Midwest) and a liberal wing based in the Northeast that supported much of the New Deal, the Old Right sharply attacked the "Second New Deal" and said it represented class warfare and socialism. Roosevelt was reelected in a landslide in 1936, but as his second term began the economy declined, strikes soared and he failed to take control of the Supreme Court or to purge the Southern conservatives in the Democratic Party. Republicans made a major comeback in the 1938 elections and had new rising stars such as Robert A. Taft of Ohio on the right and Thomas E. Dewey of New York on the left. Southern conservatives joined with most Republicans to form the conservative coalition, which dominated domestic issues in Congress until 1964. Both parties split on foreign policy issues, with the anti-war isolationists dominant in the Republican Party and the interventionists who wanted to stop Adolf Hitler dominant in the Democratic Party. Roosevelt won a third and fourth term in 1940 and 1944. Conservatives abolished most of the New Deal during the war, but they did not attempt to reverse Social Security or the agencies that regulated business.

Unlike the "moderate", internationalist, largely eastern bloc of Republicans who accepted (or at least acquiesced in) some of the "Roosevelt Revolution" and the essential premises of President Truman's foreign policy, the Republican Right at heart was counterrevolutionary, anti-collectivist, anti-Communist, anti-New Deal, passionately committed to limited government, free market economics, and congressional (as opposed to executive) prerogatives, the G.O.P. conservatives were obliged from the start to wage a constant two-front war: against liberal Democrats from without and "me-too" Republicans from within.[40]

The Democrats elected majorities to Congress almost continuously after 1932 (the GOP won only in 1946 and 1952), but the conservative coalition blocked practically all major liberal proposals in domestic policy, after 1945, the internationalist wing of the GOP cooperated with Harry S. Truman's Cold War foreign policy, funded the Marshall Plan and supported NATO, despite the continued isolationism of the Old Right.

The second half of the 20th century saw election or succession of Republican presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Eisenhower had defeated conservative leader Senator Robert A. Taft for the 1952 nomination, but conservatives dominated the domestic policies of the Eisenhower administration. Voters liked Eisenhower much more than they liked the GOP and he proved unable to shift the party to a more moderate position, after 1970, the liberal wing began to fade away.

Ever since he left office in 1989, Reagan has been the iconic conservative Republican and Republican presidential candidates frequently claim to share his views and aim to establish themselves and their policies as the more appropriate heir to his legacy.[41]

In 1994, the party, led by House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich campaigning on the "Contract with America", was elected to majorities in both Houses of Congress during the Republican Revolution. However, Gingrich was unable to deliver on most of its promises and after the impeachment and acquittal of President Bill Clinton in 1998 and 1999 and subsequent Republican losses in the House, he resigned. Since Reagan's day, presidential elections have been close. However, the Republican presidential candidate won a majority of the popular vote only in 2004 while coming in second in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2016.

21st century

The Senate majority lasted until 2001 when the Senate became split evenly, but it was regained in the 2002 elections. Both Republican majorities in the House and Senate were held until the Democrats regained control in the mid-term elections of 2006, the Republican Party has since been defined by social conservatism, a preemptive war foreign policy intended to defeat terrorism and promote global democracy, a more powerful executive branch, supply side economics, support for gun ownership and deregulation.

2010 was a year of electoral success for the Republicans, starting with the upset win of Scott Brown in the Massachusetts special Senate election for the seat held for many decades by the Democratic Kennedy brothers. In the November elections, Republicans recaptured control of the House, increased their number of seats in the Senate and gained a majority of governorships.[42]

In the presidential election of 2012, the Republican nominees were former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts for President and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin for Vice President. The Democrats nominated incumbents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the campaign focused largely on the Affordable Care Act and President Obama's stewardship of the economy, with the country facing high unemployment numbers and a rising national debt four years after his first election. Romney and Ryan were defeated by Obama and Biden; in addition, while Republicans lost 7 seats in the House in the November congressional elections, they still retained control. However, Republicans were not able to gain control of the Senate, continuing their minority status with a net loss of 2 seats.

After the 2014 midterm elections, the Republican Party took control of the Senate by gaining nine seats,[43] with a final total of 247 seats (57%) in the House and 54 seats in the Senate, the Republicans ultimately achieved their largest majority in the Congress since the 71st Congress in 1929.[44]

Donald Trump, 45th and current President of the United States (2017–present)

After the 2016 elections, Republicans maintained a majority in the Senate, House, Governorships and elected Donald Trump as President. The Republican Party controls 69 of 99 state legislative chambers in 2017, the most it has held in history;[45] and at least 33 governorships, the most it has held since 1922.[46] The party has total control of government (legislative chambers and governorship) in 25 states,[47][48] the most since 1952;[49] while the opposing Democratic Party has full control in five states.[50]

Recent trends

For most of the post-World War II era, Republicans had little presence at the state legislative level, this trend began to reverse in the late 1990s, with Republicans increasing their state legislative presence and taking control of state legislatures in the south, which had begun to vote for Republican presidential candidates decades earlier, but had retained Democrats in the legislatures. From 2004 to 2014, the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) raised over $140 million targeted to state legislature races while the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLSC) raised less than half that during that time period. Following the 2014 midterm elections, Republicans control 68 of 98 partisan state legislative houses, the most in the party's history and have control of both the governorship and state legislatures in 24 states as opposed to only 7 states with Democratic governors and state legislatures.[51] According to a January 2015 poll by the Pew Research Center, 41% of Americans view the Republicans favorably while 46% view the Democrats favorably.[52]

With the inauguration of Republican George W. Bush as President, the Republican Party remained fairly cohesive for much of the 2000s as both strong economic libertarians and social conservatives opposed the Democrats, whom they saw as the party of bloated and more secular, liberal government.[53] The Bush-era rise of what were known as "pro-government conservatives", a core part of the President's base, meant that a considerable group of the Republicans advocated for increased government spending and greater regulations covering both the economy and people's personal lives as well as for an activist, interventionist foreign policy. Survey groups such as the Pew Research Center found that social conservatives and free market advocates remained the other two main groups within the party's coalition of support, with all three being roughly of the same number.[54][55]

In March 2013, National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus gave a stinging report on the party's failures in 2012, calling on Republicans to reinvent themselves and officially endorse immigration reform, he said: "There's no one reason we lost. Our message was weak; our ground game was insufficient; we weren't inclusive; we were behind in both data and digital, and our primary and debate process needed improvement". He proposed 219 reforms that included a $10 million marketing campaign to reach women, minorities and gays as well as setting a shorter, more controlled primary season and creating better data collection facilities.[58]

With a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents under the age of 49 supporting legal recognition of same-sex marriages versus the opposition remaining from those over 50, the issue remains a particular divide within the party. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has remarked that the "[p]arty is going to be torn on this issue" with some constituents "going to flake off".[59][60] A Reuters/Ipsos survey from April 2015 found that 68% of Americans overall would attend the same-sex wedding of a loved one, with 56% of Republicans agreeing. Reuters journalist Jeff Mason remarked that "Republicans who stake out strong opposition to gay marriage could be on shaky political ground if their ultimate goal is to win the White House" given the divide between the social conservative stalwarts and the rest of the United States that opposes them.[61]

The Republican candidate for President in 2012, Mitt Romney, lost to incumbent President Barack Obama, the fifth time in six elections the Republican candidate received fewer votes than his Democratic counterpart; in the aftermath of the loss, some prominent Republicans spoke out against their own party. For example, 1996 Republican Presidential candidate and longtime former Senator Bob Dole said that "today's GOP members are too conservative and overly partisan, they ought to put a sign on the National Committee doors that says closed for repairs".[62] Former Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine stated as well that she was in agreement with Dole.[63] Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (under George H.W. Bush) and former Secretary of State (under George W. Bush) Colin Powell remarked that the GOP has "a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party", commenting about the birther movement "[w]hy do senior Republican leaders tolerate this kind of discussion within the party?" and "I think the party has to take a look at itself".[64] The College Republican National Committee (CRNC) released a report in June 2013 that was highly critical of the party, being titled "Grand Old Party for a Brand New Generation".[65][needs update]

Name and symbols

1874 Nast cartoon featuring the first notable appearance of the Republican elephant[66]

The red, white and blue Republican elephant, still a primary logo for many state GOP committees

The circa 2013 GOP logo

The party's founding members chose the name Republican Party in the mid-1850s as homage to the values of republicanism promoted by Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party.[67] The idea for the name came from an editorial by the party's leading publicist, Horace Greeley, who called for "some simple name like 'Republican' [that] would more fitly designate those who had united to restore the Union to its true mission of champion and promulgator of Liberty rather than propagandist of slavery",[68] the name reflects the 1776 republican values of civic virtue and opposition to aristocracy and corruption.[69] It is important to note that "republican" has a variety of meanings around the world and the Republican Party has evolved such that the meanings no longer always align.[70][71]

The term "Grand Old Party" is a traditional nickname for the Republican Party and the abbreviation "GOP" is a commonly used designation, the term originated in 1875 in the Congressional Record, referring to the party associated with the successful military defense of the Union as "this gallant old party". The following year in an article in the Cincinnati Commercial, the term was modified to "grand old party", the first use of the abbreviation is dated 1884.[72]

The traditional mascot of the party is the elephant. A political cartoon by Thomas Nast, published in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874, is considered the first important use of the symbol.[73] An alternate symbol of the Republican Party in states such as Indiana, New York and Ohio is the bald eagle as opposed to the Democratic rooster or the Democratic five-pointed star.[74][75] In Kentucky, the log cabin is a symbol of the Republican Party (not related to the gay Log Cabin Republicans organization).[76]

Traditionally the party had no consistent color identity.[77][78][79] After the 2000 election, the color red became associated with Republicans, that election night, for the first time all of the major broadcast networks used the same color scheme for the electoral map: states won by Republican nominee George W. Bush were colored red and states won by Democratic nominee Al Gore were colored blue, although the assignment of colors to political parties is unofficial and informal, the media has come to represent the respective political parties using these colors. The party and its candidates have also come to embrace the color red.[citation needed]

Structure and organization

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is responsible for promoting Republican campaign activities, it is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. Its current chairwoman is Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chair of the RNC is chosen by the President when the Republicans have the White House or otherwise by the party's state committees.

Under the direction of the party's presidential candidate, the RNC supervises the Republican National Convention (the highest body in the party) and raises funds for candidates, on the local level, there are similar state committees in every state and most large cities, counties and legislative districts, but they have far less money and influence than the national body.

Republicans strongly believe that free markets and individual achievement are the primary factors behind economic prosperity. To this end, they advocate the elimination of government-run welfare programs in favor of private sector nonprofits and encouraging personal responsibility. Republicans also frequently advocate in favor of fiscal conservatism during Democratic administrations, but have shown themselves willing to increase federal debt when they are in charge of the government, such as the implementation of the Bush tax cuts, Medicare Part D and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[81][82][83][84]

Modern Republicans advocate the theory of supply side economics, which holds that lower tax rates increase economic growth.[85] Many Republicans oppose higher tax rates for higher earners, which they believe are unfairly targeted at those who create jobs and wealth. They believe private spending is more efficient than government spending.

Republicans believe individuals should take responsibility for their own circumstances, they also believe the private sector is more effective in helping the poor through charity than the government is through welfare programs and that social assistance programs often cause government dependency. Some[who?] agree there should be some "safety net" to assist the less fortunate while limiting it to encourage employment and monitoring it[how?] to reduce abuse. 2016 and 2017 polls also found that an overwhelming majority of Republicans support protectionism and autarky and oppose free trade.[86][87][88]

Republicans believe corporations should be able to establish their own employment practices, including benefits and wages, with the free market deciding the price of work, since the 1920s, Republicans have generally been opposed by labor union organizations and members. At the national level, Republicans supported the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which gives workers the right not to participate in unions. Modern Republicans at the state level generally support various "right-to-work" laws that weaken unions.

Most Republicans tend to oppose increases in the minimum wage, believing that such increases hurt businesses by forcing them to cut and outsource jobs and pass costs along to consumers.

Since the 1990s, a significant part of the American conservative movement has worked to challenge climate science and climate policy.[92] While the scientific consensus for human activity created climate-warming is around 97%,[95] according to a Pew Research survey 44% of American adults in the general public acknowledged human activity as the cause of climate change and 23% of Republicans.[96] Republican views on global warming and scientific consensus on climate change show a similar trend and few Republican lawmakers support climate policy that builds on international consensus.[92]

Many Republicans during the presidency of Barack Obama had opposed then President's new environmental regulations, such as those on carbon emissions from coal; in particular, many Republicans support building the Keystone Pipeline, which is supported by businesses, but opposed by indigenous peoples' groups and environmental activists.[103][104][105]

The Republican Party is unique in denying anthropogenic climate change among conservative political parties across the Western world,[106][107] from 2008 to 2017, the Republican Party went from "debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist", according to The New York Times.[108] In 2011, "more than half of the Republicans in the House and three-quarters of Republican senators" said "that the threat of global warming, as a man-made and highly threatening phenomenon, is at best an exaggeration and at worst an utter 'hoax' ", according to Judith Warner writing in The New York Times Magazine.[109] In 2014, more than 55% of congressional Republicans were climate change deniers, according to NBC News.[110][111] According to PolitiFact in May 2014, "relatively few Republican members of Congress...accept the prevailing scientific conclusion that global warming is both real and man-made...eight out of 278, or about 3 percent".[112][113] In 2016, Oklahoma State University professor of environmental sociology Riley Dunlap and his co-authors wrote in the peer-reviewed journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development:

Republican antipathy to governmental regulations, combined with enormous campaign contributions to the GOP from fossil fuel interests, means that most Republican politicians have strong ideological as well as material reasons for opposing measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to pressure from party activists and voters.[114]

Immigration

Republicans are divided on how to confront illegal immigration between a platform that allows for migrant workers and a path to citizenship (supported by establishment types), versus a position focused on securing the border and deporting illegal immigrants (supported by populists); in 2006, the White House supported and Republican-led Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform that would eventually allow millions of illegal immigrants to become citizens, but the House (also led by Republicans) did not advance the bill.[120]

After the defeat in the 2012 presidential election, particularly among Latinos, several Republicans advocated a friendlier approach to immigrants. However, in 2016 the field of candidates took a sharp position against illegal immigration, with leading candidate Donald Trump proposing building a wall along the southern border.

Proposals calling for immigration reform with a path to citizenship have attracted broad Republican support in some[which?] polls. In a 2013 poll, 60% of Republicans supported the pathway concept.[121]

Foreign policy and national defense

Some[who?] in the Republican Party support unilateralism on issues of national security, believing in the ability and right of the United States to act without external support in matters of its national defense. In general, Republican thinking on defense and international relations is heavily influenced by the theories of neorealism and realism, characterizing conflicts between nations as struggles between faceless forces of international structure as opposed to being the result of the ideas and actions of individual leaders. The realist school's influence shows in Reagan's Evil Empire stance on the Soviet Union and George W. Bush's Axis of evil stance.

Republicans have frequently advocated for restricting foreign aid as a means of asserting the national security and immigration interests of the United States.[123][124][125]

The Republican Party generally supports a strong alliance with Israel and efforts to secure peace in the Middle East between Israel and its Arab neighbors;[126][127] in recent years, Republicans have begun to move away from the two-state solution approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[128][129] In a 2014 poll, 59% of Republicans favored doing less abroad and focusing on the country's own problems instead.[130]

According to the 2016 platform,[131] the party's stance on the status of Taiwan is: "We oppose any unilateral steps by either side to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Straits on the principle that all issues regarding the island's future must be resolved peacefully, through dialogue, and be agreeable to the people of Taiwan". In addition, if "China were to violate those principles, the United States, in accord with the Taiwan Relations Act, will help Taiwan defend itself".

Abortion and embryonic stem cell research

A majority of the party's national and state candidates are pro-life and oppose elective abortion on religious or moral grounds. While many advocate exceptions in the case of incest, rape or the mother's life being at risk, in 2012 the party approved a platform advocating banning abortions without exception,[134] they oppose government and tax-payer funding for abortion providers, notably Planned Parenthood.[135]

Although Republicans have voted for increases in government funding of scientific research, some[which?] members actively oppose the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research beyond the original lines because it involves the destruction of human embryos.[136][137][138]

Civil rights

Republicans are generally against affirmative action for women and some minorities, often describing it as a "quota system" and believing that it is not meritocratic and that it is counter-productive socially by only further promoting discrimination. Many[who?] Republicans support race-neutral admissions policies in universities, but support taking into account the socioeconomic status of the student.[139][140]

LGBT rights

Owing largely to the prominence of the religious right in conservative politics in the United States, the Republican Party has taken positions regarded as outwardly hostile to the gay rights movement. Republicans have historically strongly opposed same-sex marriage (the party's overall attitude on civil unions is much more divided, with some in favor and others opposed), with the issue a galvanizing one that many believe helped George W. Bush win re-election in 2004. In both 2004[143] and 2006,[144] congressional Republican leaders[which?] promoted the Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment which would legally restrict the definition of marriage to heterosexual couples. In both attempts, the amendment failed to secure enough votes to invoke cloture and thus ultimately was never passed, as more states legalized same-sex marriage in the 2010s, Republicans increasingly supported allowing each state to decide its own marriage policy.[145]

Anti-discrimination laws

The Republican Party opposed the inclusion of sexual preference in anti-discrimination statutes from 1992 to 2004,[147] the 2008 and 2012 Republican Party platform supported anti-discrimination statues based on sex, race, age, religion, creed, disability, or national origin, but both platforms were silent on sexual orientation and gender identity.[148][149]

A 2013 poll found that 61% of Republicans support laws protecting gay and lesbian people against employment discrimination[145] and a 2007 poll showed 60% of Republicans supported expanding federal hate crime laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity.[150]

Puerto Rican statehood

The 2016 platform declares: "We support the right of the United States citizens of Puerto Rico to be admitted to the Union as a fully sovereign state. We further recognize the historic significance of the 2012 local referendum in which a 54 percent majority voted to end Puerto Rico's current status as a U.S. territory, and 61 percent chose statehood over options for sovereign nationhood. We support the federally sponsored political status referendum authorized and funded by an Act of Congress in 2014 to ascertain the aspirations of the people of Puerto Rico. Once the 2012 local vote for statehood is ratified, Congress should approve an enabling act with terms for Puerto Rico's future admission as the 51st state of the Union".[131]

Composition

Prior to the formation of the conservative coalition, which helped realign the Democratic and Republican party ideologies in the mid-1960s, the party had historically advocated classical liberalism and progressivism, the party is a full member of the conservative International Democrat Union as well as the Asia Pacific Democrat Union. It is also an associate member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe,[14] which has close relations to the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom. According to the most recent Gallup poll, 25% of Americans identify as Republican and 16% identify as leaning Republican; in comparison, 30% identify as Democratic and 16% identify as leaning Democratic. The Democratic Party has typically held an overall edge in party identification since Gallup began polling on the issue in 1991;[151] in another Gallup poll, 42% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents identified as economically and socially conservative, followed by 24% as socially and economically moderate or liberal, 20% as socially moderate or liberal and fiscally conservative and 10% as socially conservative and fiscally moderate or liberal.[152]

Historically speaking, the Republican base initially consisted of Northern white Protestants and African Americans nationwide, with the first presidential candidate John C. Frémont receiving almost no votes in the South. This trend continued into the 20th century, with 1944 Republican presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey having only 10% of his popular votes in the South. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the core base shifted considerably, with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic, especially since 1992, every Northeastern state except for New Hampshire has voted Democratic six straight elections or more.

The party's current base consists of groups such as white, married Protestants, rural and suburban citizens and non-union workers without college degrees, with urban residents, ethnic minorities, the unmarried and union workers having shifted to the Democratic Party.[153]

Establishment vs. anti-establishment

In addition to splits over ideology, the party can be broadly divided into the establishment and anti-establishment.

Nationwide polls of Republican voters in 2014 by the Pew Center identified a growing split in the Republican coalition, between "business conservatives" or "establishment conservatives" and "steadfast conservatives" or "populist conservatives".[154]

The Tea Party movement is typically aligned with the Republican Party, but it feuds with the pro-business wing of the party, which it sees as too moderate and too willing to compromise.[155]

In Congress, Eric Cantor's position as Majority Leader went to California Congressman Kevin McCarthy, who had been an advocate of the Export-Import Bank, it finances overseas purchases of American products, especially airplanes. However, McCarthy changed positions after meeting with populist Congressmen and decided to support the termination of the Bank.[156][157]

Conservatives, moderates, liberals and progressives

Republican conservatives are strongest in the South, Mountain West and Midwest, where they draw support from social conservatives, the moderates tend to dominate the party in New England and used to be well represented in all states. From the 1940s to the 1970s under such leaders as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, they usually dominated the presidential-wing of the party. Since the 1970s, they have been less powerful, though they are always represented in the cabinets of Republican Presidents; in Vermont, Jim Jeffords, a Republican Senator became an independent in 2001 due to growing disagreement with President Bush and the party leadership. In addition, moderate Republicans have recently held the governorships in several New England states while Lincoln Chafee, a former moderate Republican senator is an independent-turned-Democrat former governor of Rhode Island. Former Senator Olympia Snowe and current Senator Susan Collins, both of Maine; and former Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts are notable moderate Republicans from New England. Former Senator Mark Kirk is another example of a moderate Republican from a Democratic stronghold, Illinois, who ironically held the Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama, from 1991 to 2007, moderate Republicans served as governors of Massachusetts. Prominent Republican moderates have included former Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford and Bush Sr. as well as former Senate leaders Howard Baker and Bob Dole, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former New York City Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg.

Business community

Republicans are usually seen as the traditionally pro-business party and it garners major support from a wide variety of industries from the financial sector to small businesses. Republicans are about 50 percent more likely to be self-employed and are more likely to work in management.[161]

A survey cited by The Washington Post in 2012 stated that 61 percent of small business owners planned to vote for then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Small business became a major theme of the 2012 Republican National Convention. For example, South Dakota Senator John Thune discussed his grandfather's hardware store and New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte referred to her husband's landscaping company.[162]

Demographics

The Democrats do better among younger Americans and Republicans among older Americans; in 2006, Republicans won 38% of the voters aged 18–29.[163]

Low-income voters tend to favor the Democrats while high-income voters tend to support the Republicans; in 2012, Obama won 60% of voters with income under $50,000 and 45% of those with incomes higher than that.[164] Bush won 41% of the poorest 20% of voters in 2004, 55% of the richest twenty percent and 53% of those in between; in the 2006 House races, the voters with incomes over $50,000 were 49% Republican while those under were 38%.[163]

Gender

Since 1980, a "gender gap" has seen slightly stronger support for the Republican Party among men than among women; in 2012, Obama won 55% of the women and 45% of the men—and more women voted than men.[164] In the 2006 House races, 43% of women voted Republican while 47% of men did so;[163] in the 2010 midterms, the "gender gap" was reduced with women supporting Republican and Democratic candidates equally 49% to 49%.[165][166] In recent elections, Republicans have found their greatest support among whites from married couples with children living at home.[167] Unmarried and divorced women were far more likely to vote for John Kerry in 2004,[168] the 2012 returns revealed a continued weakness among unmarried women for the GOP, a large and growing portion of the electorate.[169] Although Mitt Romney lost women as a whole 44–55 to Obama, he won married women 53–46.[170] Obama won unmarried women 67–31.[171]

Education

In 2012, the Pew Research Center conducted a study of registered voters with a 35–28, Democrat-to-Republican gap, they found that self-described Democrats had a +8 advantage over Republicans among college graduates, +14 of all post-graduates polled. Republicans were +11 among white men with college degrees, Democrats +10 among women with degrees. Democrats accounted for 36% of all respondents with an education of high school or less and Republicans were 28%. When isolating just white registered voters polled, Republicans had a +6 advantage overall and were +9 of those with a high school education or less.[172]

An analysis of 2008 through 2012 survey data from the General Social Survey, the National Election Studies and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press led to the following assessment of the overall educational status of self-identified Democrats and Republicans:

On average, self-identified Republicans have more years of education (4 to 8 months each, depending on the survey) and are probably more likely to hold, at the least, a 4-year college degree. (One major survey indicates that they are more likely, while the results of another survey are statistically insignificant.) It also appears that Republicans continue to out-test Democrats in surveys that assess political knowledge and/or current events. With respect to post-graduate studies, the educational advantage is shifting towards self-identified Democrats, they are now more likely to hold post-graduate college degrees. (One major survey indicates that they are more likely, while the results of another survey are statistically insignificant.)[173]

Ethnicity

Republicans have been winning under 15% of the black vote in recent national elections (1980 to 2016). While historically the party had been supporters of rights for African Americans starting in the 1860s, it lost its leadership position in the 1960s.[citation needed] The party abolished slavery under Abraham Lincoln, defeated the Slave Power and gave blacks the legal right to vote during Reconstruction in the late 1860s. Until the New Deal of the 1930s, blacks supported the Republican Party by large margins.[174] Black voters shifted to the Democratic Party beginning in the 1930s, when major Democratic figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt began to support civil rights and the New Deal offered them employment opportunities, they became one of the core components of the New Deal coalition. In the South, after the Voting Rights Act to prohibit racial discrimination in elections was passed by a bipartisan coalition in 1965, blacks were able to vote again and ever since have formed a significant portion (20–50%) of the Democratic vote in that region.[175]

For decades, a greater percentage of white voters identified themselves as Democrats, rather than Republicans. However, since the mid-1990s whites have been more likely to self-identify as Republicans than Democrats.[176]

In the 2010 elections, two African American Republicans were elected to the House of Representatives,[177] the party has recently nominated African American candidates for senator or governor in Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland, though none were successful.

In recent decades, Republicans have been moderately successful in gaining support from Hispanic and Asian American voters. George W. Bush, who campaigned energetically for Hispanic votes, received 35% of their vote in 2000 and 44% in 2004,[178] the party's strong anti-communist stance has made it popular among some minority groups from current and former Communist states, in particular Cuban Americans, Korean Americans, Chinese Americans and Vietnamese Americans. The election of Bobby Jindal as Governor of Louisiana has been hailed as pathbreaking,[179] he is the first elected minority governor in Louisiana and the first state governor of Indian descent.[180] According to John Avlon in 2013, the Republican party is more diverse at the statewide elected official level than the Democratic Party, including Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.[181]

In 2012, 88% of Romney voters were white while 56% of Obama voters were white;[182] in the 2008 presidential election, John McCain won 55% of white votes, 35% of Asian votes, 31% of Hispanic votes and 4% of African American votes.[183] In the 2010 House election, Republicans won 60% of the white votes, 38% of Hispanic votes and 9% of the African American vote.[184]

Religious beliefs

Religion has always played a major role for both parties, but in the course of a century the parties' religious compositions have changed. Religion was a major dividing line between the parties before 1960, with Catholics, Jews and Southern Protestants heavily Democratic and Northeastern Protestants heavily Republican. Most of the old differences faded away after the realignment of the 1970s and 1980s that undercut the New Deal coalition.[185] Voters who attend church weekly gave 61% of their votes to Bush in 2004 and those who attend occasionally gave him only 47% while those who never attend gave him 36%. Fifty-nine percent of Protestants voted for Bush, along with 52% of Catholics (even though John Kerry was Catholic), since 1980, large majorities of evangelicals have voted Republican; 70–80% voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 and 70% for Republican House candidates in 2006. Jews continue to vote 70–80% Democratic. Democrats have close links with the African American churches, especially the National Baptists, while their historic dominance among Catholic voters has eroded to 54–46 in the 2010 midterms,[186] the main line traditional Protestants (Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Disciples) have dropped to about 55% Republican (in contrast to 75% before 1968). The mainline denominations are rapidly shrinking in size. Mormons in Utah and neighboring states voted 75% or more for Bush in 2000.[187]

While Catholic Republican leaders try to stay in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church on subjects such as abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research and same-sex marriage, they differ on the death penalty and contraception.[188]Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical Laudato si' sparked a discussion on the positions of Catholic Republicans in relation to the positions of the Church. The Pope's encyclical on behalf of the Catholic Church officially acknowledges a man-made climate change caused by burning fossil fuels,[189] the Pope says the warming of the planet is rooted in a throwaway culture and the developed world's indifference to the destruction of the planet in pursuit of short-term economic gains. According to The New York Times, Laudato si' put pressure on the Catholic candidates in the 2016 election: Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio and Rick Santorum.[190] With leading Democrats praising the encyclical, James Bretzke, a professor of moral theology at Boston College, has said that both sides were being disingenuous: "I think it shows that both the Republicans and the Democrats... like to use religious authority and, in this case, the Pope to support positions they have arrived at independently... There is a certain insincerity, a hypocrisy I think, on both sides".[191] While a Pew Research poll indicates Catholics are more likely to believe the Earth is warming than non-Catholics, 51% of Catholic Republicans believe in global warming (less than the general population) and only 24% of Catholic Republicans believe global warming is caused by human activity.[192]

Since 1980, geographically the Republican "base" ("red states") is strongest in the South, the Midwest and Mountain West. While it is weakest on the West Coast and Northeast, this has not always been the case as historically the Northeast was a bastion of the Republican Party, with Vermont and Maine being the only two states to vote against Franklin D. Roosevelt all four times. In the Northeast, Maine, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania continue to have a considerable Republican presence, the Midwest has been roughly balanced since 1854, with Illinois becoming more Democratic and liberal because of the city of Chicago (see below) and Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin more Republican since 1990. Ohio, Missouri and Indiana all trend Republican. Since the 1930s, the Democrats have dominated most central cities while the Republicans now dominate rural areas and the majority of suburbs.[193]

The South has become solidly Republican in national elections since 1980 and has been trending Republican at the state level since then at a slower pace;[194] in 2004, Bush led Kerry by 70–30% among Southern whites, who made up 71% of the Southern electorate. Kerry had a 70–30 lead among the 29% of the voters who were black or Hispanic. One-third of these Southern voters said they were white evangelicals and they voted for Bush by 80–20, but were only 72% Republican in 2006.[163][178]

The Republican Party's strongest focus of political influence lies in the Great Plains states, particularly Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota; and in the Mountain states of Idaho, Wyoming and Utah (Utah gave George W. Bush more than 70% of the popular vote in 2004), these states are sparsely populated with few major urban centers and have majority white populations, making it extremely difficult for Democrats to create a sustainable voter base there. While still remaining notably Republican, Montana is the only state in the region with a more moderate lean.[195] Unlike the South, these areas have been strongly Republican since before the party realignments of the 1960s.[citation needed] The Great Plains states were one of the few areas of the country where Republicans had any significant support during the Great Depression.[citation needed]

Republican Presidents

As of 2017, there have been a total of 19 Republican Party Presidents.

^Similar to the 2004 map, Republicans dominate in rural areas, making improvements in the Appalachian states, namely Kentucky, where the party won all but two counties; and West Virginia, where every county in the state voted Republican. The party also improved in many rural counties in Iowa, Wisconsin and other Midwestern states. Contrarily, the party suffered substantial losses in urbanized areas such Dallas, Harris and Fort Bend counties in Texas and Orange and San Diego counties in California, all of which were won in 2004, but lost in 2016

^Although Hayes won a majority of votes in the Electoral College, Democrat Samuel J. Tilden won a majority of the popular vote.

^Although Harrison won a majority of votes in the Electoral College, Democrat Grover Cleveland won a plurality of the popular vote.

^Although Bush won a majority of votes in the Electoral College, Democrat Al Gore won a plurality of the popular vote.

^Although Trump won a majority of votes in the Electoral College, Democrat Hillary Clinton won a plurality of the popular vote.

References

^Paul Gottfried, Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right, p. 9, "Postwar conservatives set about creating their own synthesis of free-market capitalism, Christian morality, and the global struggle against Communism." (2009); Gottfried, Theologies and moral concern (1995) p. 12.

^Compare: "History of the GOP: Founding of the Republican Party". Republican National Committee. 2018. Retrieved April 21, 2018. The name "Republican" was chosen, alluding to Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party and conveying a commitment to the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

^George H. Nash, "The Republican Right from Taft to Reagan", Reviews in American History (1984) 12#2 pp. 261–65 in JSTOR quote on p. 261; Nash references David W. Reinhard, The Republican Right since 1945, (University Press of Kentucky, 1983)

^Båtstrand, Sondre (2015). "More than Markets: A Comparative Study of Nine Conservative Parties on Climate Change". Politics and Policy. 43 (4): 538–61. doi:10.1111/polp.12122. ISSN1747-1346. The U.S. Republican Party is an anomaly in denying anthropogenic climate change.

^Chait, Jonathan (September 27, 2015). "Why Are Republicans the Only Climate-Science-Denying Party in the World?". New York. Retrieved September 20, 2017. Of all the major conservative parties in the democratic world, the Republican Party stands alone in its denial of the legitimacy of climate science. Indeed, the Republican Party stands alone in its conviction that no national or international response to climate change is needed. To the extent that the party is divided on the issue, the gap separates candidates who openly dismiss climate science as a hoax, and those who, shying away from the political risks of blatant ignorance, instead couch their stance in the alleged impossibility of international action.

^Davenport, Coral; Lipton, Eric (June 3, 2017). "How G.O.P. Leaders Came to View Climate Change as Fake Science". The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved September 22, 2017. The Republican Party’s fast journey from debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist is a story of big political money, Democratic hubris in the Obama years and a partisan chasm that grew over nine years like a crack in the Antarctic shelf, favoring extreme positions and uncompromising rhetoric over cooperation and conciliation.

^Warner, Judith (February 27, 2011). "Fact-Free Science". The New York Times Magazine. pp. 11–12. Retrieved September 9, 2017. It would be easier to believe in this great moment of scientific reawakening, of course, if more than half of the Republicans in the House and three-quarters of Republican senators did not now say that the threat of global warming, as a man-made and highly threatening phenomenon, is at best an exaggeration and at worst an utter “hoax,” as James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, once put it. These grim numbers, compiled by the Center for American Progress, describe a troubling new reality: the rise of the Tea Party and its anti-intellectual, anti-establishment, anti-elite worldview has brought both a mainstreaming and a radicalization of antiscientific thought.

^Matthews, Chris (May 12, 2014). "Hardball With Chris Matthews for May 12, 2014". Hardball With Chris Matthews. MSNBC. NBC news. According to a survey by the Center for American Progress' Action Fund, more than 55 percent of congressional Republicans are climate change deniers. And it gets worse from there, they found that 77 percent of Republicans on the House Science Committee say they don't believe it in either. And that number balloons to an astounding 90 percent for all the party's leadership in Congress.

^"Earth Talk: Still in denial about climate change". The Charleston Gazette. Charleston, West Virginia. December 22, 2014. p. 10. ...a recent survey by the non-profit Center for American Progress found that some 58 percent of Republicans in the U.S. Congress still "refuse to accept climate change. Meanwhile, still others acknowledge the existence of global warming but cling to the scientifically debunked notion that the cause is natural forces, not greenhouse gas pollution by humans.

^Moser, Claire; Koronowski, Ryan (April 28, 2017). "The Climate Denier Caucus in Trump's Washington". ThinkProgress. Retrieved September 5, 2017. The researchers classified as a denier any lawmaker who: has questioned or denied the scientific consensus behind human-caused climate change; answered climate questions with the “I’m not a scientist” dodge; claimed the climate is always changing (as a way to dodge the implications of human-caused warming); failed to acknowledge that climate change is a serious threat; or questioned the extent to which human beings contribute to global climate change.

^Sumner, Mark (April 28, 2017). "A majority of Republicans in the House and Senate are climate change deniers". DailyKos. Retrieved September 19, 2017. Of the 180 climate science deniers in the 115th Congress, 142 are in the House and 38 are in the Senate. That’s more than 59 percent of the Republican House caucus and 73 percent of Republicans in the Senate that deny the scientific consensus that climate change is happening, human activity is the main cause, and it is a serious threat. No Democrats publicly deny the science behind climate change.

^Unmarried Women in the 2004 Presidential ElectionArchived January 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. (PDF). Report by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, January 2005. p. 3: "The marriage gap is one of the most important cleavages in electoral politics. Unmarried women voted for Kerry by a 25-point margin (62 to 37 percent), while married women voted for President Bush by an 11-point margin (55 percent to 44 percent). Indeed, the 25-point margin Kerry posted among unmarried women represented one of the high water marks for the Senator among all demographic groups." "Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on January 1, 2016. Retrieved November 23, 2006.

^To some extent the United States Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade caused American Christians to blur their historical division along the line between Catholics and Protestants and instead to realign as conservatives or liberals, irrespective of the Reformation Era distinction.

Barone, Michael. The Almanac of American Politics 2014: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts (2013); revised every two years since 1975.

Black, Earl and Merle Black. The Rise of Southern Republicans (2002).

Brennan, Mary C. Turning Right in the Sixties: The Conservative Capture of the GOP (1995).

Conger, Kimberly H. The Christian Right in Republican State Politics (2010) 202 pages; focuses on Arizona, Indiana, and Missouri.

Crane, Michael. The Political Junkie Handbook: The Definitive Reference Books on Politics (2004) covers all the major issues explaining the parties' positions.

Critchlow, Donald T. The Conservative Ascendancy: How the Republican Right Rose to Power in Modern America (2nd ed. 2011).

Schlesinger, Arthur Meier Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2000 (various multivolume editions, latest is 2001). Essays on the most important election are reprinted in Schlesinger, The Coming to Power: Critical presidential elections in American history (1972).

Shafer, Byron E. and Anthony J. Badger, eds. Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775–2000 (2001), long essays by specialists on each time period:

includes: "To One or Another of These Parties Every Man Belongs": 1820–1865 by Joel H. Silbey; "Change and Continuity in the Party Period: 1835–1885" by Michael F. Holt; "The Transformation of American Politics: 1865–1910" by Peter H. Argersinger; "Democracy, Republicanism, and Efficiency: 1885–1930" by Richard Jensen; "The Limits of Federal Power and Social Policy: 1910–1955" by Anthony J. Badger; "The Rise of Rights and Rights Consciousness: 1930–1980" by James T. Patterson; and "Economic Growth, Issue Evolution, and Divided Government: 1955–2000" by Byron E. Shafer.

Shafer, Byron and Richard Johnston. The End of Southern Exceptionalism (2006), uses statistical election data and polls to argue GOP growth was primarily a response to economic change.

Steely, Mel. The Gentleman from Georgia: The Biography of Newt Gingrich Mercer University Press, 2000. ISBN0-86554-671-1.

Sundquist, James L. Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States (1983).

Wooldridge, Adrian and John Micklethwait. The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America (2004).

1.
Democratic-Republican Party
–
The new party controlled the presidency and Congress, as well as most states, from 1801 to 1825, during the First Party System. It began in 1791 as one faction in Congress, and included many politicians who had opposed to the new constitution. They called themselves Republicans after their ideology Republicanism and they distrusted the Federalist commitment to republicanism. The party splintered in 1824 into the Jacksonian movement and the short-lived National Republican Party, the term Democratic-Republican is used especially by modern political scientists for the first Republican Party. It is also known as the Jeffersonian Republicans, historians typically use the title Republican Party. An Anti-Administration faction met secretly in the capital to oppose Hamiltons financial programs. Jefferson denounced the programs as leading to monarchy and subversive of republicanism, Jefferson needed to have a nationwide party to challenge the Federalists, which Hamilton was building up with allies in major cities. Foreign affairs took a role in 1794–95 as the Republicans vigorously opposed the Jay Treaty with Britain. Republicans saw France as more democratic after its revolution, while Britain represented the hated monarchy, the party denounced many of Hamiltons measures as unconstitutional, especially the national bank. The party was strongest in the South and weakest in the Northeast and it demanded states rights as expressed by the Principles of 1798 articulated in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions that would allow states to nullify a federal law. Above all, the party stood for the primacy of the yeoman farmers, Republicans were deeply committed to the principles of republicanism, which they feared were threatened by the supposed monarchical tendencies of the Hamiltonian Federalists. The party came to power in 1801 with the election of Jefferson in the 1800 presidential election, the Federalists—too elitist to appeal to most people—faded away, and totally collapsed after 1815. The Republicans dominated the First Party System, despite internal divisions, the party selected its presidential candidates in a caucus of members of Congress. They included Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe, by 1824, the caucus system had practically collapsed. After 1800, the party dominated Congress and most state governments outside New England, by 1824, the party was split four ways and lacked a center, as the First Party System collapsed. The emergence of the Second Party System in the 1830s realigned the old factions, one remnant followed Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren into the new Democratic Party by 1828. Another remnant led by John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay formed the National Republicans in 1828, the precise date of founding is disputed, but 1791 is a reasonable estimate, some time by 1792 is certain. The elections of 1792 were the first ones to be contested on anything resembling a partisan basis, in most states the congressional elections were recognized, as Jefferson strategist John Beckley put it, as a struggle between the Treasury department and the republican interest

2.
Michigan
–
Michigan /ˈmɪʃᵻɡən/ is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit, Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, the two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. The state has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, as a result, it is one of the leading U. S. states for recreational boating. Michigan also has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds, a person in the state is never more than six miles from a natural water source or more than 85 miles from a Great Lakes shoreline. What is now the state of Michigan was first settled by Native American tribes before being colonized by French explorers in the 17th century, the area was organized as part of the larger Northwest Territory until 1800, when western Michigan became part of the Indiana Territory. Eventually, in 1805, the Michigan Territory was formed, which lasted until it was admitted into the Union on January 26,1837, the state of Michigan soon became an important center of industry and trade in the Great Lakes region and a popular immigrant destination. Though Michigan has come to develop an economy, it is widely known as the center of the U. S. automotive industry. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous tribes were Algonquian peoples, which include the Anishinaabe groups of Ojibwe, Odaawaa/Odawa, the three nations co-existed peacefully as part of a loose confederation called the Council of Three Fires. The Ojibwe, whose numbers are estimated to have been between 25,000 and 35,000, were the largest, French voyageurs and coureurs des bois explored and settled in Michigan in the 17th century. The first Europeans to reach what became Michigan were those of Étienne Brûlés expedition in 1622, the first permanent European settlement was founded in 1668 on the site where Père Jacques Marquette established Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan as a base for Catholic missions, missionaries in 1671–75 founded outlying stations at Saint Ignace and Marquette. Jesuit missionaries were received by the areas Indian populations, with relatively few difficulties or hostilities. In 1679, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle built Fort Miami at present-day St. Joseph, in 1691, the French established a trading post and Fort St. Joseph along the St. Joseph River at the present day city of Niles. The hundred soldiers and workers who accompanied Cadillac built a fort enclosing one arpent, cadillacs wife, Marie Thérèse Guyon, soon moved to Detroit, becoming one of the first European women to settle in the Michigan wilderness. The town quickly became a major fur-trading and shipping post, the Église de Saint-Anne was founded the same year

3.
President of the United States
–
The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is considered to be one of the worlds most powerful political figures, the role includes being the commander-in-chief of the worlds most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad, Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The president is empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves. The president is responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is a member. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States, since the office of President was established in 1789, its power has grown substantially, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. However, nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having elected to the office. The Twenty-second Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president for a third term, in all,44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. On January 20,2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th, in 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives to Congress, only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1,1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies, with peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. Prospects for the convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washingtons attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. It was through the negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U. S. The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto, the Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options, Sign the legislation, the bill becomes law. Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections, in this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation

4.
Donald Trump
–
Donald John Trump is the 45th and current President of the United States. Prior to entering politics he was a businessman and television personality, Trump was born and raised in Queens, New York City, and earned an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He then took charge of The Trump Organization, the estate and construction firm founded by his paternal grandmother, which he ran for four. During his real career, Trump has built, renovated, and managed numerous office towers, hotels, casinos. Besides real estate, he started several ventures and has lent the use of his name for the branding of various products. He owned the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants from 1996 to 2015, and he hosted The Apprentice, as of 2017, Forbes listed him as the 544th wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $3.5 billion. Trump first publicly expressed interest in running for office in 1987. He won two Reform Party presidential primaries in 2000, but withdrew his candidacy early on, in June 2015, he launched his campaign for the 2016 presidential election and quickly emerged as the front-runner among 17 candidates in the Republican primaries. His final opponents suspended their campaigns in May 2016, and in July he was nominated at the Republican National Convention along with Indiana governor Mike Pence as his running mate. His campaign received unprecedented media coverage and international attention, many of the statements he made at rallies, in interviews, or on social media were controversial or false. Trump won the election on November 8,2016, in a surprise victory against Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. His political positions have been described by scholars and commentators as populist, protectionist, Trump was born on June 14,1946 at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, Queens, New York City. He was the fourth of five born to Frederick Christ Fred Trump. His siblings are Maryanne, Fred Jr. Elizabeth, and Robert, Trumps ancestors originated from the village of Kallstadt, Palatinate, Germany on his fathers side, and from the Outer Hebrides isles of Scotland on his mothers side. All his grandparents, and his mother, were born in Europe and his mothers grandfather was also christened Donald. On a visit to his village, he met Elisabeth Christ. He died from the flu pandemic of 1918 and Elizabeth incorporated the family real estate business, Elizabeth Trump and Son, which would later become The Trump Organization. Trumps father Fred was born in the Bronx, and worked with his mother since he was 15 as a real estate developer, primarily in the New York boroughs of Queens and he eventually built and sold thousands of houses, barracks and apartments

5.
New York (state)
–
New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year

6.
Vice President of the United States
–
The executive power of both the vice president and the president is granted under Article Two, Section One of the Constitution. The vice president is elected, together with the president. The Office of the Vice President of the United States assists, as the president of the United States Senate, the vice president votes only when it is necessary to break a tie. Additionally, pursuant to the Twelfth Amendment, the president presides over the joint session of Congress when it convenes to count the vote of the Electoral College. Currently, the president is usually seen as an integral part of a presidents administration. The Constitution does not expressly assign the office to any one branch, causing a dispute among scholars whether it belongs to the executive branch, the legislative branch, or both. The modern view of the president as a member of the executive branch is due in part to the assignment of executive duties to the vice president by either the president or Congress. Mike Pence of Indiana is the 48th and current vice president and he assumed office on January 20,2017. The formation of the office of vice president resulted directly from the compromise reached at the Philadelphia Convention which created the Electoral College, the delegates at Philadelphia agreed that each state would receive a number of presidential electors equal to the sum of that states allocation of Representatives and Senators. The delegates assumed that electors would typically choose to favor any candidate from their state over candidates from other states, under a plurality election process, this would tend to result in electing candidates solely from the largest states. Consequently, the delegates agreed that presidents must be elected by a majority of the number of electors. To guard against such stratagems, the Philadelphia delegates specified that the first runner-up presidential candidate would become vice president, the process for selecting the vice president was later modified in the Twelfth Amendment. Each elector still receives two votes, but now one of those votes is for president, while the other is for vice president. The requirement that one of those votes be cast for a candidate not from the electors own state remains in effect. S, other statutorily granted roles include membership of both the National Security Council and the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. As President of the Senate, the president has two primary duties, to cast a vote in the event of a Senate deadlock and to preside over. For example, in the first half of 2001, the Senators were divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats and Dick Cheneys tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority, as President of the Senate, the vice president oversees procedural matters and may cast a tie-breaking vote. As President of the Senate, John Adams cast 29 tie-breaking votes that was surpassed by John C. Calhoun with 31. Adamss votes protected the presidents sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, on at least one occasion Adams persuaded senators to vote against legislation he opposed, and he frequently addressed the Senate on procedural and policy matters

7.
Mike Pence
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Michael Richard Mike Pence is an American politician, lawyer, and the 48th Vice President of the United States. He previously served as the 50th Governor of Indiana from 2013 to 2017, born and raised in Columbus, Indiana, Pence graduated from Hanover College and earned a law degree from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law before entering private practice. After losing two bids for a U. S. congressional seat in 1988 and 1990, he became a conservative radio and he served as the chairman of the House Republican Conference from 2009 to 2011. Pence positioned himself as an ideologue and supporter of the Tea Party movement, noting he was a Christian, a conservative. Pence signed bills intended to restrict abortions, including one that prohibited abortions if the reason for the procedure was the race, gender. He later signed an additional bill acting as an amendment intended to protect LGBT people. Michael Richard Mike Pence was born June 7,1959, in Columbus, Indiana, one of six children of Nancy Jane and Edward J. Pence and his family were Irish Catholic Democrats. He was named after his grandfather, Richard Michael Cawley, who emigrated from County Sligo, Ireland, to the United States through Ellis Island and became a bus driver in Chicago and his maternal grandmothers parents were from Doonbeg, County Clare. Pence graduated from Columbus North High School in 1977 and he earned a BA degree in history from Hanover College in 1981, and a JD degree from the Indiana Universitys Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis in 1986. While at Hanover, Pence joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, after graduating from Hanover, Pence was an admissions counselor at the college from 1981 to 1983. In his childhood and early adulthood, Pence was a Roman Catholic, kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. While in college, Pence became an evangelical, born-again Christian, after graduating from law school in 1986, Pence was an attorney in private practice. He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in 1988 and in 1990. He became the president of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, a self-described free-market think tank in 1991, Pence left the Indiana Policy Review Foundation in 1993, a year after beginning to host The Mike Pence Show, a talk radio program based in WRCR-FM in Rushville, Indiana. Pence called himself Rush Limbaugh on decaf since he considered himself politically conservative while not as outspoken as Limbaugh, the show was syndicated by Network Indiana and aired weekdays 9 a. m. to noon on 18 stations throughout the state, including WIBC in Indianapolis. From 1995 to 1999, Pence also hosted a political talk show from Indianapolis. In 1988, Pence ran for Congress against Democratic incumbent Phil Sharp and he ran against Sharp again in 1990, quitting his job in order to work full-time in the campaign, but once again was unsuccessful. During the race, Pence used political donations to pay the mortgage on his house, his credit card bill, groceries, golf tournament fees

8.
Indiana
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Indiana /ɪndiˈænə/ is a U. S. state located in the midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th largest by area and the 16th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th U. S. state on December 11,1816, before becoming a territory, varying cultures of indigenous peoples and historic Native Americans inhabited Indiana for thousands of years. Indiana has an economy with a gross state product of $298 billion in 2012. Indiana has several areas with populations greater than 100,000. The states name means Land of the Indians, or simply Indian Land and it also stems from Indianas territorial history. On May 7,1800, the United States Congress passed legislation to divide the Northwest Territory into two areas and named the section the Indiana Territory. In 1816, when Congress passed an Enabling Act to begin the process of establishing statehood for Indiana, a resident of Indiana is officially known as a Hoosier. The first inhabitants in what is now Indiana were the Paleo-Indians, divided into small groups, the Paleo-Indians were nomads who hunted large game such as mastodons. They created stone tools made out of chert by chipping, knapping and flaking, the Archaic period, which began between 5000 and 4000 BC, covered the next phase of indigenous culture. The people developed new tools as well as techniques to cook food, such new tools included different types of spear points and knives, with various forms of notches. They made ground-stone tools such as axes, woodworking tools. During the latter part of the period, they built mounds and middens. The Archaic period ended at about 1500 BC, although some Archaic people lived until 700 BC, afterward, the Woodland period took place in Indiana, where various new cultural attributes appeared. During this period, the people created ceramics and pottery, an early Woodland period group named the Adena people had elegant burial rituals, featuring log tombs beneath earth mounds. In the middle portion of the Woodland period, the Hopewell people began developing long-range trade of goods, nearing the end of the stage, the people developed highly productive cultivation and adaptation of agriculture, growing such crops as corn and squash. The Woodland period ended around 1000 AD, the Mississippian culture emerged, lasting from 1000 until the 15th century, shortly before the arrival of Europeans. During this stage, the people created large urban settlements designed according to their cosmology, with mounds and plazas defining ceremonial

9.
Paul Ryan
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Paul Davis Ryan Jr. is an American politician who is the 54th and current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Ryan is a member of the Republican Party who has served as the U. S, Representative for Wisconsins 1st congressional district since 1999. Ryan previously served as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, from January 3 to October 29,2015 and he was the Republican Party nominee for Vice President of the United States, running alongside former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts in the 2012 election. Ryan, together with Democratic Senator Patty Murray, negotiated the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 and he named lobbyist John David Hoppe as his Chief of Staff. Paul Davis Ryan, Jr. was born in Janesville, Wisconsin, the youngest of four children of Elizabeth A. Betty, who became an interior designer, and Paul Davis Ryan. His father was of Irish ancestry and his mother of German, one of Ryans paternal ancestors settled in Wisconsin prior to the Civil War. His great-grandfather, Patrick William Ryan, founded a company in 1884. Ryans grandfather, Stanley M. Ryan, was appointed U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, as class president Ryan was a representative of the student body on the school board. Following his second year, Ryan took a job working the grill at McDonalds and he was on his high schools ski, track, and varsity soccer teams and played basketball in a Catholic recreational league. He participated in academic and social clubs including the Model United Nations. Ryan and his family went on hiking and skiing trips to the Colorado Rocky Mountains. When he was 16, Ryan found his 55-year-old father lying dead in bed of a heart attack. Following the death of his father, Ryans grandmother moved in with the family, from the time of his fathers death until his 18th birthday, Ryan received Social Security survivors benefits, which were saved for his college education. His mother remarried, to Bruce Douglas and he often visited the office of libertarian professor Richard Hart to discuss the theories of these economists and of Ayn Rand. Hart introduced Ryan to National Review, and with Harts recommendation Ryan began an internship in the D. C. office of Wisconsin Senator Bob Kasten where he worked with Kastens foreign affairs adviser and he attended the Washington Semester program at American University. Ryan worked summers as a salesman for Oscar Mayer and once got to drive the Wienermobile, Ryan was a member of the College Republicans, and volunteered for the congressional campaign of John Boehner. He was a member of the Delta Tau Delta social fraternity, Betty Ryan reportedly urged her son to accept a congressional position as a legislative aide in Senator Kastens office, which he did after graduating in 1992. In his early working on Capitol Hill, Ryan supplemented his income by working as a waiter, as a fitness trainer

10.
Wisconsin
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Wisconsin is a U. S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, the state is divided into 72 counties. Wisconsin is second to Michigan in the length of its Great Lakes coastline, Wisconsin is known as Americas Dairyland because it is one of the nations leading dairy producers, particularly famous for its cheese. Manufacturing, especially paper products, information technology, and tourism are major contributors to the states economy. The word Wisconsin originates from the given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian-speaking Native American groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River, arriving in 1673, subsequent French writers changed the spelling from Meskousing to Ouisconsin, and over time this became the name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling from Ouisconsin to Wisconsin when they began to arrive in numbers during the early 19th century. The legislature of Wisconsin Territory made the current spelling official in 1845, the Algonquin word for Wisconsin and its original meaning have both grown obscure. Interpretations vary, but most implicate the river and the red sandstone that lines its banks, other theories include claims that the name originated from one of a variety of Ojibwa words meaning red stone place, where the waters gather, or great rock. Wisconsin has been home to a variety of cultures over the past 12,000 years. The first people arrived around 10,000 BCE during the Wisconsin Glaciation and these early inhabitants, called Paleo-Indians, hunted now-extinct ice age animals such as the Boaz mastodon, a prehistoric mastodon skeleton unearthed along with spear points in southwest Wisconsin. After the ice age ended around 8000 BCE, people in the subsequent Archaic period lived by hunting, fishing, agricultural societies emerged gradually over the Woodland period between 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. Toward the end of period, Wisconsin was the heartland of the Effigy Mound culture. Later, between 1000 and 1500 CE, the Mississippian and Oneota cultures built substantial settlements including the village at Aztalan in southeast Wisconsin. The Oneota may be the ancestors of the modern Ioway and Ho-Chunk tribes who shared the Wisconsin region with the Menominee at the time of European contact, the first European to visit what became Wisconsin was probably the French explorer Jean Nicolet. He canoed west from Georgian Bay through the Great Lakes in 1634, pierre Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers visited Green Bay again in 1654–1666 and Chequamegon Bay in 1659–1660, where they traded for fur with local Native Americans. In 1673, Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet became the first to record a journey on the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway all the way to the Mississippi River near Prairie du Chien

11.
Kevin McCarthy (California politician)
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Kevin Owen McCarthy is an American congressman from Bakersfield, California. He serves in the United States House of Representatives for Californias 23rd district, a Republican, he was formerly chairman of the California Young Republicans and the Young Republican National Federation. McCarthy worked as director for U. S. Representative Bill Thomas, and in 2000 was elected as a trustee to the Kern Community College District and he then served in the California State Assembly from 2002 to 2006, the last two years as minority leader. When Thomas retired from the House of Representatives in 2006, McCarthy ran to succeed him and won the election. After announcing his candidacy for Speaker on September 28,2015, he dropped out of the race on October 8 after a gaffe where he said, Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, but we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. But no one would have any of that had happened, had we not fought. McCarthy was born in Bakersfield, California, the son of Roberta Darlene, a homemaker, and Owen McCarthy, McCarthy is a fourth-generation resident of Kern County. He is the first Republican in his family, as his parents were members of the Democratic Party. At the age of 19, he opened his first business and he subsequently sold the deli to attend California State University, Bakersfield, where he obtained a B. S. in marketing in 1989 and an M. B. A. in 1994. In 1995, he was chairman of the California Young Republicans, from 1999 to 2001, he was chairman of the Young Republican National Federation. From the late 1990s until 2000, he was director for U. S. Representative Bill Thomas, who, at the time, chaired the House Ways, McCarthy won his first election in 2000, as a Kern Community College District trustee. McCarthy was elected to the California State Assembly in 2002, becoming Republican floor leader during his term in 2003. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2006, McCarthy entered the Republican primary for Californias 22nd District after his former boss, Bill Thomas, announced his retirement. He won the three-way Republican primary--the real contest in this heavily Republican district--with 85 percent of the vote and he then won the general election with 70. 7% of the vote. McCarthy was unopposed for a second term and he was virtually unopposed, winning 98. 8% of the vote, with opposition coming only from a write-in candidate. Redistricting before the 2012 election resulted in McCarthys district being renumbered as the 23rd District and it became somewhat more compact, losing its share of the Central Coast while picking up large parts of Tulare County

12.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565

13.
Party leaders of the United States Senate
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The Senate Majority and Minority Leaders are two United States Senators and members of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They are elected to their positions in the Senate by their party caucuses, the Senate Democratic Caucus. By rule, the Presiding Officer gives the Majority Leader priority in obtaining recognition to speak on the floor of the Senate, the Assistant Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States Senate are the second-ranking members of each partys leadership. The main function of the Majority and Minority Whips is to gather votes on major issues, because they are the second ranking member of the Senate, if there is no floor leader present, the whip may become acting floor leader. Before 1969, the titles were Majority Whip and Minority Whip. The Senate is currently composed of 52 Republicans,46 Democrats, the current leaders are Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. The current Assistant Majority Leader is Republican John Cornyn of Texas, the current Assistant Minority Leader/Whip is Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois. The Democrats began the practice of electing floor leaders in 1920 while they were in the minority, John W. Kern was a Democratic Senator from Indiana. While the title was not official, he is considered to be the first Senate party leader from 1913 through 1917, the Constitution designates the Vice President of the United States as President of the United States Senate. The Constitution also calls for a President pro tempore to serve as the leader of the body when the President of the Senate is absent, for these reasons, it is the Majority Leader who, in practice, manages the Senate. This is in contrast to the House of Representatives where the elected Speaker of the House has a deal of discretionary power. The Democratic Party first selected a leader in 1920, the Republican Party first formally designated a leader in 1925. gov Republican Majority Democratic Minority

14.
Mitch McConnell
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Addison Mitchell Mitch McConnell Jr. is an American politician and the senior United States Senator from Kentucky. A member of the Republican Party, he has been the Majority Leader of the Senate since January 3,2015 and he is the 15th Republican and the second Kentuckian to lead his party in the Senate. During the administration of President Barack Obama, McConnell was known to the left as being an obstructionist, some on the right praised him for tenacity and courage, while others criticized him for being part of the political establishment and not keeping his promises to conservatives. From early 2016, McConnell refused to schedule Senate hearings for Obamas nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, to replace Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016. Garlands nomination remained before the Senate for 294 days, from March 16,2016 until it expired on January 3,2017, McConnell has repeatedly been found to have the lowest home state approval rating of any sitting senator. McConnell was born on February 20,1942, in a hospital in Sheffield, Alabama, which is now called the Helen Keller Hospital, McConnell is the son of Addison Mitchell McConnell, and his wife, Julia. As a youth, he overcame polio and his family moved to Georgia when he was eight. When he was a teenager, his family arrived in Louisville where he attended duPont Manual High School and he graduated with honors from the University of Louisville with a B. A. in political science in 1964. McConnell was president of the Student Council of the College of Arts and Sciences and he has maintained strong ties to his alma mater and remains a rabid fan of its sports teams. Three years later, McConnell graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law, McConnell is of Scots-Irish and English descent. McConnell enlisted in the U. S. Army Reserve at Louisville and he received an Honorable Discharge for medical reasons after five weeks at Fort Knox. McConnell began interning for Senator John Sherman Cooper in 1964, later, McConnell was an assistant to Senator Marlow Cook and was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General under President Gerald R. Ford, where he worked alongside future Justice Antonin Scalia. In 1977, McConnell was elected the Jefferson County Judge/Executive, the top political office in Jefferson County. 1984 In 1984, McConnell ran for the U. S. Senate against two-term Democratic incumbent Walter Dee Huddleston. The election race wasnt decided until the last returns came in, McConnell was the only Republican Senate challenger to win that year, despite Ronald Reagans landslide victory in the presidential election. His campaign bumper stickers and television ads asked voters to Switch to Mitch,1990 In 1990, McConnell faced a tough re-election contest against former Louisville Mayor Harvey I. 1996 In 1996, he defeated Steve Beshear by 12. 6%,2002 In 2002, he was re-elected against Lois Combs Weinberg by 29. 4%, the largest majority by a statewide Republican candidate in Kentucky history. 2008 In 2008, McConnell faced his closest contest since 1990 and he defeated Bruce Lunsford by 6%

15.
Kentucky
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Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state located in the east south-central region of the United States. Kentucky is one of four U. S. states constituted as a commonwealth, originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 Kentucky became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States, Kentucky is known as the Bluegrass State, a nickname based on the bluegrass found in many of its pastures due to the fertile soil. One of the regions in Kentucky is the Bluegrass Region in central Kentucky. In 1776, the counties of Virginia beyond the Appalachian Mountains became known as Kentucky County, the precise etymology of the name is uncertain, but likely based on an Iroquoian name meaning the meadow or the prairie. Kentucky is situated in the Upland South, a significant portion of eastern Kentucky is part of Appalachia. Kentucky borders seven states, from the Midwest and the Southeast, West Virginia lies to the east, Virginia to the southeast, Tennessee to the south, Missouri to the west, Illinois and Indiana to the northwest, and Ohio to the north and northeast. Only Missouri and Tennessee, both of which border eight states, touch more, Kentuckys northern border is formed by the Ohio River and its western border by the Mississippi River. The official state borders are based on the courses of the rivers as they existed when Kentucky became a state in 1792, for instance, northbound travelers on U. S.41 from Henderson, after crossing the Ohio River, will be in Kentucky for about two miles. Ellis Park, a racetrack, is located in this small piece of Kentucky. Waterworks Road is part of the land border between Indiana and Kentucky. Kentucky has a part known as Kentucky Bend, at the far west corner of the state. It exists as an exclave surrounded completely by Missouri and Tennessee, Road access to this small part of Kentucky on the Mississippi River requires a trip through Tennessee. The epicenter of the powerful 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes was near this area, much of the outer Bluegrass is in the Eden Shale Hills area, made up of short, steep, and very narrow hills. The Jackson Purchase and western Pennyrile are home to several bald cypress/tupelo swamps, located within the southeastern interior portion of North America, Kentucky has a climate that can best be described as a humid subtropical climate. Temperatures in Kentucky usually range from daytime summer highs of 87 °F to the low of 23 °F. The average precipitation is 46 inches a year, Kentucky experiences four distinct seasons, with substantial variations in the severity of summer and winter. The highest recorded temperature was 114 °F at Greensburg on July 28,1930 while the lowest recorded temperature was −37 °F at Shelbyville on January 19,1994, due to its location, Kentucky has a moderate humid subtropical climate, with abundant rainfall

16.
Whig Party (United States)
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The Whig Party was a political party active in the middle of the 19th century in the United States. Four US presidents belonged to the party while in office and it emerged in the 1830s as the immediate successor to the National Republican and Anti-Masonic Parties, and was also rooted in the tradition of the Federalist Party. Along with the rival Democratic Party, it was central to the Second Party System from the early 1840s to the mid-1860s and it originally formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic Party. In particular, the Whigs supported the supremacy of the US Congress over the Presidency and favored a program of modernization, banking and it appealed to entrepreneurs, planters, reformers and the emerging urban middle class, but had little appeal to farmers or unskilled workers. It included many active Protestants, and voiced a moralistic opposition to the Jacksonian Indian removal, Party founders chose the Whig name to echo the American Whigs of the 18th century who fought for independence. The underlying political philosophy of the American Whig Party was not directly related to the British Whig party, the Whig Party nominated several presidential candidates in 1836. General William Henry Harrison of Ohio was nominated in 1840, former Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky in 1844, another war hero, General Winfield Scott of New Jersey was the Whig Partys last presidential nominee, in 1852. In its two decades of existence, the Whig Party had two of its candidates, Harrison and Taylor, elected president, John Tyler succeeded to the presidency after Harrisons death in 1841, but was expelled from the party later that year. Millard Fillmore, who became president after Taylors death in 1850, was the last Whig president, the party fell apart because of the internal tension over the expansion of slavery to the territories. Most Whig Party leaders eventually quit politics or changed parties, the northern voter base mostly gravitated to the new Republican Party. In the South, most joined the Know Nothing Party, which unsuccessfully ran Fillmore in the 1856 presidential election, the Constitutional Union Party experienced significant success from conservative former Whigs in the Upper South during the 1860 presidential election. Whig ideology as a policy orientation persisted for decades and played a role in shaping the modernizing policies of the state governments during Reconstruction. The name Whig derived from a term that Patriots used to refer to themselves during the American Revolution and it indicated hostility to the British Sovereign, and despite the identical name, did not directly derive from the British Whig Party. The American Whigs were modernizers who saw President Andrew Jackson as a man on horseback with a reactionary opposition to the forces of social, economic. Casting their enemy as King Andrew, they sought to identify themselves as opponents of governmental overreaching. Despite the apparent unity of Jeffersons Democratic-Republicans from 1800 to 1824, as Jackson purged his opponents, vetoed internal improvements, and killed the Second Bank of the United States, alarmed local elites fought back. In 1831, Henry Clay re-entered the Senate and started planning a new party and he defended national rather than sectional interests. His Jacksonian opponents, however, distrusted the government and opposed all federal aid for internal improvements

17.
Free Soil Party
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The Free Soil Party was a short-lived political party in the United States active in the 1848 and 1852 presidential elections, and in some state elections. Founded in Buffalo, New York, it was a third party, the party leadership consisted of anti-slavery former members of the Whig Party and the Democratic Party. Its main purpose was to oppose the expansion of slavery into the western territories and it opposed slavery in the new territories and sometimes worked to remove existing laws that discriminated against freed African Americans in states such as Ohio. It nominated Martin Van Buren for the presidency in 1848 and John P. Hale for the presidency in 1852, the party membership was largely absorbed by the Republican Party between 1854 and 1856, by way of the Anti-Nebraska movement. The party also called for a tariff for revenue only, the Free Soil Partys main support came from areas of Ohio, upstate New York and western Massachusetts, although other northern states also had representatives. The party contended that slavery undermined the dignity of labor and inhibited social mobility, viewing slavery as an economically inefficient, obsolete institution, Free Soilers believed that slavery should be contained, and that if contained it would ultimately disappear. In 1848 the New York State Democratic convention did not endorse the Wilmot Proviso, almost half the members, known as Barnburners, walked out after denouncing the national platform. Lewis Cass, the Democratic Partys 1848 presidential nominee, supported popular sovereignty for determining the status of slavery in the U. S. territories, the main party leaders were Salmon P. Chase of Ohio and John P. Hale of New Hampshire. The Free Soil candidates won 10% of the vote in 1848 but no electoral votes. The party distanced itself from abolitionism and avoided the moral problems implicit in slavery, members emphasized instead the threat slavery would pose to free white labor and northern businessmen in the new western territories. Although abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison derided the party philosophy as white manism, the 1848 platform pledged to promote limited internal improvements, work for a homestead law, work towards paying off the public debt, and introduce a moderate tariff for revenue only. The Compromise of 1850 temporarily neutralized the issue of slavery and undercut the partys no-compromise position, most Barnburners returned to the Democratic Party while most of the Conscience Whigs returned to the Whig Party. This resulted in the Free Soil Party becoming dominated by ardent anti-slavery leaders, the party ran John P. Hale in the 1852 presidential election, but its share of the popular vote shrank to less than 5%. However two years later, after enormous outrage over the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, the remains of the Free Soil Party helped form the Republican Party. The Free Soil Party sent two Senators and fourteen Representatives to the thirty-first Congress, which convened from March 4,1849 to March 3,1851. Since there were party members on the floor of Congress, they could carry far more weight in the government, the partys spoiler effect in 1848 may have helped Taylor into office in a narrowly contested election. The strength of the party, however, was its representation in Congress, the sixteen elected officials had influence far beyond their numerical strength. The partys most important legacy was as a route for anti-slavery Democrats to join the new Republican coalition, in August 1854 an alliance was brokered at Ottawa, Illinois between the Free Soil Party and the Whigs that gave rise to the Republican Party

18.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing

19.
College Republicans
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The College Republican National Committee is a national organization for college and university students who support the Republican Party of the United States. The organizational structure of the College Republicans has changed significantly since its founding in 1892, founded as an organization for the Republican National Committee, the College Republicans now operate as an independent 527 group. After the Young Republican National Federation was spun off from the College Republicans organization in 1972, the College Republicans were founded as the American Republican College League on May 17,1892 at the University of Michigan. The organization was spearheaded by law student James Francis Burke, who would serve as a Congressman from Pennsylvania. The inaugural meeting was attended by over 1,000 students from across the country, then-Governor of Ohio William McKinley gave a rousing keynote speech. The College Republicans quickly pursued a strategy of sending students to vote in their home districts. This strategy was implemented for the 1900 presidential election between William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan, helping win Bryans home state of Nebraska for McKinley. The College Republicans were financed, at least in part, by the Republican National Committee throughout much of its history. James Francis Burke received significant funding from the RNC to support the American Republican College Leagues founding and to maintain the organizations offices in New York City. By 1924, the organization was operating directly under the auspices of the RNC as the Associated University Republican Clubs, the relative dominance of the Democratic party through the 1930s through the 1960s coincided with a precipitous drop in the membership and effectiveness of the College Republicans. In 1931, the College Republicans were absorbed as an arm of the Hoover campaign, in 1935, the College Republicans were merged into the newly created Young Republican National Federation, encompassing both college students and young professionals. College Republican operations continued under the Young Republicans until the 1965 founding of the College Republican National Committee, in 1967, Morton Blackwell, then a field representative for the CRNC to Kentucky, developed many of the principles now used by the College Republicans. On election day, Nunn became the first Republican Governor of Kentucky in 20 years, the New York Times and Louie Nunn himself credited the efforts of Blackwells volunteers. In 1970, the Young Republican National Federation was permanently spun off from the College Republicans in 1970 to prevent counter-productive infighting among the two groups, in 1972 the Republican National Committee made the College Republican National Committee an auxiliary arm of the RNC. In 1973, Karl Rove ran for chair of the College Republicans and he challenged the front-runners delegates, throwing the national convention into disarray, after which both he and his opponent, Robert Edgeworth, claimed victory. The dispute was resolved when Rove was selected through the order of the chairman of the Republican National Committee. By 1980, only 20 active College Republican chapters remained, by the US Presidential election in 1980, that number had increased to 1,000 active clubs, helping Reagan win 98 of 105 mock elections and recruiting thousands of voters. This success led to $290,000 in financial assistance from the RNC, Abramoffs fund-raising efforts brought in an additional $1,160,000 during the next two years

20.
Young Republicans
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It has both a national organization and chapters in individual states. Young Republican Clubs are both social and political in nature, many of them sponsor various social events and networking events for members. In addition, Young Republican Clubs assist Republican political candidates and causes, the oldest Young Republican club in the country is the New York Young Republican Club, Inc. in New York City which was founded in April 1911 and incorporated in February 19,1912. Although frequently confused, the YRNF operates independently from the College Republican National Committee, although Young Republican organizations existed as early as 1859, the Young Republican National Federation was formed by George H. Olmsted at the urging of Herbert Hoover. The YRNF was officially founded in 1931, the YRNF has limited control over its State Federations. A few states, including Montana, act as both a state & local chapter, while a majority of states, including Texas & California, grant strong autonomy to individual clubs. Some Federations include a Regional Chair to handle issues of clubs in the city or plan larger events in a particular part of the state. State Federations elect a Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, National Committee Man & National Committee Woman, depending on the state, Vice-Chair, Immediate Past Chair, or other Directors are also elected to form the Executive Committee. Voting rights at State Meetings are giving to each member of the Executive Committee, as well as Regional Chairs, the State Chair, National Committee Man, and National Committee Women serve on the National Governing Board and elect U. S. Regional Directors, a National Chair, Co-Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, assistants, presently, the National Federation does not collect dues from either its State Federations or its club members, raising money only through attendance at national events and from private donations. The YRNF is technically not associated with the Republican Party, the YRNF owns the trademark to the term Young Republican and the YRNF logo. It is the first state federation to adopt such a name change, conventions are held every two years. The 2015 Young Republican National Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois The 2013 Young Republican National Convention was held in Mobile, the 2011 Convention was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The 2017 Young Republican National Convention will be hosted by the Maryland Young Republicans in Annapolis, senator and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. John Cornyn, Texas U. S. Fahrenkopf, Jr. S, william Rusher, publisher and activist in the Draft Goldwater movement Rick Santorum, former U. S. Senator of Pennsylvania Richard Schweiker, former U. S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, senator of Pennsylvania Roger Stone, YRNF Chairman, political consultant Don Sundquist, YRNF Chairman, former Tennessee Governor John E. Sununu, former New Hampshire U. S. Senator Mauricio J. Tamargo Chairman of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission Robert C, tapella, 25th Public Printer of the United States John Tobia, Florida State Representative David Vitter, Louisiana U. S. In JSTOR Young Republican National Federation

21.
Teen Age Republicans
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National Teen Age Republicans is the youth wing of the United States Republican Party. Its aim is to support to the party and its candidates. Members work to community service, and learn about the political processes at local, state. The group claims to have a presence in all 50 U. S. states, the oldest recorded TAR group is in South Dakota, which was formed in 1960. TARs are organizationally independent of the Young Republican National Federation and the Republican National Committee, TAR is organized in chapters across United States. There are federations in most states, and clubs in counties, the National TAR office provides information on existing clubs, and provides resources and advice on starting a club in areas that do not already have one. It also organizes the annual national Teenage Republican Leadership Conference and awards ceremony and it is not affiliated with certain teenage outreach programs through state chapters of the Young Republicans Federation. Similar to the Republican Party, the majority of TAR activity takes place on the State level, State and Regional TAR federations sometimes receive some financial support from their state Party. Most have an executive board with its own constitution, and organize statewide events such as summer camps. County and Local Clubs are subordinate to state organizations, and are formed at county, city or school level, with similar structure and activities to state federations. During TLC, National TARs also hosts an awards ceremony where members can win awards such as Outstanding TAR In the Nation

22.
Republican Party (United States)
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The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution and it was founded by anti-slavery activists, modernists, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers in 1854. The Republicans dominated politics nationally and in the majority of northern States for most of the period between 1860 and 1932, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883

23.
Conservatism in the United States
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Historians argue that the conservative tradition has played a major role in American politics and culture since the 1790s. However they have stressed that a conservative movement has played a key role in politics only since the 1950s. The recent movement is based in the Republican Party, though some Democrats were also important figures early in the movements history, the history of American conservatism has been marked by tensions and competing ideologies. Fiscal conservatives and libertarians favor small government, low taxes, limited regulation, Social conservatives see traditional social values as threatened by secularism, they tend to support voluntary school prayer and oppose abortion and same sex marriage. Some also want the teaching of intelligent design or creationism allowed, the 21st century has seen an increasingly fervent conservative support for Second Amendment rights of private citizens to own firearms. Neoconservatives want to expand American ideals throughout the world, paleoconservatives advocate restrictions on immigration, non-interventionist foreign policy, and stand in opposition to multiculturalism. Nationwide most factions, except some libertarians, support a unilateral foreign policy, the conservative movement of the 1950s attempted to bring together these divergent strands, stressing the need for unity to prevent the spread of godless communism. All other activities of government tend to diminish freedom and hamper progress, the growth of government must be fought relentlessly. In this great social conflict of the era, we are, without reservations and we believe that truth is neither arrived at nor illuminated by monitoring election results, binding though these are for other purposes, but by other means, including a study of human experience. On this point we are, without reservations, on the conservative side, President Ronald Reagan set the conservative standard in the 1980s, in the 2010s the Republican leaders typically claim fealty to it. For example, most of the Republican candidates in 2012 claimed to be standardbearers of Reagans ideological legacy, the 1980s and beyond became known as the Reagan Era. Typically, conservative politicians and spokesmen in the 21st century proclaim their devotion to Reagans ideals and policies on most social, economic and they support a strong policy of law and order to control crime, including long jail terms for repeat offenders. Most conservatives support the death penalty for particularly egregious crimes, the law and order issue was a major factor weakening liberalism in the 1960s. From 2001 to 2008, Republican President George W. Bush stressed cutting taxes and minimizing regulation of industry and banking, Conservatives generally advocate the use of American military power to fight terrorists and promote democracy in the Middle East. According to a 2014 poll, 38% of American voters identify as conservative or very conservative, 34% as moderate, although the study does show some distinction between the concentration of moderates and conservatives or liberals between the Republican and Democratic parties. Among Democrats, 44% are self-identified liberals, 19% as conservatives, for Republicans 70% self-identified as conservative, 24% as moderate, and 5% as liberal. Conservatism appears to be growing stronger at the state level, the trend is most pronounced among the least well-off, least educated, most blue collar, most economically hard-hit states. Conservatives generally believe that government action is not the solution to problems as poverty and inequality

24.
Federalism in the United States
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Federalism in the United States is the constitutional relationship between U. S. state governments and the national government of the United States. Since the founding of the country, and particularly with the end of the American Civil War, power shifted away from the states, the progression of federalism includes dual, state-centered, and new federalism. Federalism was a solution for the problems with the Articles of Confederation which gave little practical authority to the federal government. The movement was strengthened by the reaction to Shays Rebellion of 1786–1787. The rebellion was fueled by an economy that was created, in part. Moreover, the government had proven incapable of raising an army to quell the rebellion. This convention almost immediately dropped its original mandate and instead set about constructing a new Constitution of the United States, once the convention concluded and released the Constitution for public consumption, the Federalist movement became focused on getting the Constitution ratified. The Federalist Papers remain one of the most important set of documents in American history and those opposed to the new Constitution became known as the Anti-Federalists. The Anti-Federalist critique soon centered on the absence of a bill of rights, because George Washington lent his prestige to the Constitution and because of the ingenuity and organizational skills of its proponents, the Constitution was ratified by all the states. The outgoing Congress of the Confederation scheduled elections for the new government, in 1789, Congress submitted twelve articles of amendment to the states. Ten of these articles, written by congressional committees, achieved passage on December 15,1791, the Tenth Amendment set the guidelines for federalism in the United States. As soon as the first Federalist movement dissipated, a second one sprang up to take its place and this one was based on the policies of Alexander Hamilton and his allies for a stronger national government, a loose construction of the Constitution, and a mercantile economy. While the Federalist movement of the 1780s and the Federalist Party were distinct entities, the Democratic-Republican Party, the opposition to the Federalist Party, emphasized the fear that a strong national government was a threat to the liberties of the people. They stressed that the debt created by the new government would bankrupt the country. These themes resonated with the Anti-Federalists, the opposition to the Federalist movement of the 1780s, as Norman Risjord has documented for Virginia, of the supporters of the Constitution in 1788, 69% joined the Federalist party, while nearly all of the opponents joined the Republicans. 71% of Thomas Jeffersons supporters in Virginia were former anti-federalists who continued to fear centralized government, in short, nearly all of the opponents of the Federalist movement became opponents of the Federalist Party. The movement reached its zenith with the election of an overtly Federalist President, however, with the defeat of Adams in the election of 1800 and the death of Hamilton, the Federalist Party began a long decline from which it never recovered. The threat of secession was also proposed during these secret meetings, three delegates were sent to Washington, DC to negotiate New Englands terms only to discover the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, ending the war with the British

25.
Centrism
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Centre-left and centre-right politics both involve a general association with centrism combined with leaning somewhat to their respective sides of the spectrum. It has been suggested that individuals vote for centrist parties for purely statistical reasons, Centrists usually support a degree of equal opportunity and economic freedom. They can generally lean conservative on issues and lean liberal on social issues. However, centrism itself is location-dependent and exact policies can vary depending on geographical, Indian National Congress was centrist in its ideology. It is one of the oldest parties in the world, under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru the party sought to build a modern secular democratic republic in India. Its support is has different ups and downs from the late 1990s, people change their support base to other political parties but choose it again after period of 5 years. It acts as a party, presently, in Indian Parliament. There have been centrists in both sides of politics, who alongside the various factions within the Liberal and Labor parties. In addition, there are a number of groups that have formed in response to the bipartisan system who uphold centrist ideals. South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon had launched his own centrist political party called the Nick Xenophon Team in 2014, the Palmer United Party has been suggested as being a centrist party as well, however, the party itself does not make such formal claims of being politically centrist. The Australian Sex Party is also a centrist political party and they have just one seat and control the balance of power, with a huge political responsibility within the Victorian Legislative Council since 2014. The New Flemish Alliance is the largest, and since 2009, among French speaking Belgians the Humanist Democratic Centre is a centre-right or centre party as it is considerably less conservative than its Flemish counterpart, Christian Democratic & Flemish. Another party in the centre of the spectrum is the liberal Reformist Movement. The Liberals are currently the largest party in Canadas House of Commons, although, some may argue that the Liberal Party is more of a Centre-Left then a Centrist party. Czech Republic has two main centrist political parties which are currently in the government, liberal ANO and Christian democratic Christian, france has a tradition of parties that call themselves centriste. The most notable centrist party, often also called liberal, was the Union for French Democracy, among its successors belongs the small Centrist Alliance, the most successful of them is the Democratic Movement of François Bayrou, founded in 2007. However, the centrist parties often oppose to the parties such as Socialists. It often support the centre-right Gaullist parties and join several coalitions governed by Jacques Chirac, zentrismus is a term only known to experts, as it is easily confused with Zentralismus, so the usual term in German for the political centre/centrism is politische Mitte

26.
Neoconservatism
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For modern conservatism in other countries, see Conservatism § Modern conservatism in different countries. Neoconservatism is a movement born in the United States during the 1960s among conservative-leaning Democrats who became disenchanted with the partys foreign policy. Many of its adherents became politically famous during the Republican presidential administrations of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, neoconservatives peaked in influence during the administration of George W. Bush, when they played a major role in promoting and planning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prominent neoconservatives in the George W. Bush administration included Paul Wolfowitz, Elliott Abrams, Richard Perle, the term neoconservative refers to those who made the ideological journey from the anti-Stalinist Left to the camp of American conservatism. The movement had its roots in the Jewish monthly review magazine Commentary. They spoke out against the New Left and in that way helped define the movement, the neoconservative label was used by Irving Kristol in his 1979 article Confessions of a True, Self-Confessed Neoconservative. His ideas have been influential since the 1950s, when he co-founded and edited the magazine Encounter, another source was Norman Podhoretz, editor of the magazine Commentary from 1960 to 1995. By 1982 Podhoretz was terming himself a neoconservative, in a New York Times Magazine article titled The Neoconservative Anguish over Reagans Foreign Policy. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the neoconservatives considered that liberalism had failed and no longer knew what it was talking about, seymour Lipset asserts that the term neoconservative was used originally by a socialist to criticize the politics of Social Democrats, USA. Jonah Goldberg argues that the term is ideological criticism against proponents of American modern liberalism who had become more conservative. Through the 1950s and early 1960s, the future neoconservatives had endorsed the American Civil Rights Movement, racial integration, from the 1950s to the 1960s, there was general endorsement among liberals for military action to prevent a communist victory in Vietnam. Many were particularly alarmed by what they claimed were anti-semitic sentiments from Black Power advocates, a substantial number of neoconservatives were originally moderate socialists associated with the right-wing of the Socialist Party of America, and its successor, Social Democrats, USA. Max Shachtman, a former Trotskyist theorist who developed an antipathy towards the New Left, had numerous devotees among SDUSA with strong links to George Meanys AFL-CIO. Following Shachtman and Meany, this led the SP to oppose an immediate withdrawal from the Vietnam War. They also chose to cease their own party-building and concentrated on working within the Democratic Party, thus the Socialist Party ceased to be in 1972 and SDUSA emerged. SDUSA leaders associated with neoconservatism include Carl Gershman, Penn Kemble, Joshua Muravchik, Norman Podhoretzs magazine Commentary of the American Jewish Committee, originally a journal of liberalism, became a major publication for neoconservatives during the 1970s. Commentary published an article by Jeane Kirkpatrick, an early and prototypical neoconservative, many neoconservatives had been Jewish intellectuals in New York City during the 1930s. They were on the left but strongly opposed Stalinism, some were Trotskyists

27.
Right-wing populism
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Right-wing populism is a political ideology that rejects the current political consensus and often combines laissez-faire, ethnocentrism and anti-elitism. It is considered populism because of its appeal to the man as opposed to the elites. Right wing populism in the Western world, is associated with ideologies such as New Nationalism, anti-globalization, nativism, protectionism. Although extreme right-wing movements in the US have been studied separately, other populist parties have links to fascist movements founded during the interwar period when Italian, German, Hungarian, Spanish and Japanese fascism rose to power. Since the early 2010s, right wing populist movements such as the National Front in France, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, and UK Independence Party began to grow in popularity. In large part because of increasing opposition to immigration from the Middle East and Africa, rising euroscepticism, President Donald Trumps 2016 political views have been summarized by pundits as right wing populist and nationalist. Also, unlike traditional parties, they do not belong to organizations of like-minded parties. One commonality though is that they are more right-wing than other parties on the left–right axis. Scholars use terminology inconsistently, sometimes referring to right-wing populism as radical right or other such as New Nationalism. Republican Party and Conservative Party of Canada include right-wing populist factions, Canada has a history of right-wing populist protest parties and politicians, most notably in Western Canada due to Western alienation. The highly successful Social Credit Party of Canada consistently won seats in British Columbia, Alberta, in recent years, right-wing populism exists within factions of the Conservative Party of Canada and is most notably espoused by Kellie Leitch, Kevin OLeary and the now-deceased Rob Ford. In 2016, the Czech Republic warned that Russia tries to divide, the Austrian Freedom Party established in 1955 by a former Nazi functionary claims to represent a Third Camp, beside the Socialist Party and the social Catholic Austrian Peoples Party. It succeeded the Federation of Independents founded after World War II, from 1980, the Freedom Party adopted a more liberal stance. Upon the 1983 federal election it entered a government with the Socialist Party. The liberal interlude however ended, when Jörg Haider was elected chairman in 1986, by his down-to-earth manners and patriotic attitude, Haider re-integrated the partys nationalist base voters. Nevertheless, he was able to obtain votes from large sections of population disenchanted with politics by publicly denouncing corruption. The electoral success was boosted by Austrias accession to the EU in 1995, upon the 1999 federal election the Freedom Party with 26. 9% of the votes cast became the second strongest party in the National Council parliament. Having entered a government with the Peoples Party, Haider had to face the disability of several FPÖ ministers

28.
Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe
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It currently has twenty-four member parties and three further independent members from twenty-one countries, in addition to seven regional partners worldwide. The political movement was founded on 1 October 2009, after the creation of the European Conservatives and it was officially recognised by the European Parliament in January 2010. ACRE is governed by a Board of Directors who are elected by the Council, the ACREs President is Jan Zahradil MEP, and its Secretary-General is Daniel Hannan MEP. The Vice-Presidents are Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson MP from Iceland, Anna Fotyga MEP from Poland, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP from the United Kingdom, amongst ACREs eight founding members the largest were the UK Conservative Party, the Polish PiS and the Czech ODS. ACRE was formally constituted under the chairmanship of Belgian MEP Derk Jan Eppink, at ACREs first congress was in Warsaw on 8 June 2010, attended by its founding members, including UK Conservative Party Chairwoman Sayeeda Warsi and Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek. The Conservative Party of Georgia and New Majority joined on 1 November 2014, at the same time, the ACRE formally affiliated to the European Conservatives Group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In November 2015, the Conservatives and Reformists of Italy were admitted as ACRE members, followed by the Alliance for Progress and Renewal of Germany and M10 party of Romania in March 2016. The Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists has officially changed its name to the Alliance of Conservatives, ACRE adopted the Reykjavík Declaration at its Council Meeting on 21 March 2014. The declaration defines the principles that underpin ACRE, ACRE believes in a Europe of independent nations, working together for mutual gain while each retaining its identity and integrity. ACRE is committed to the equality of all European democracies, whatever their size, ACRE favours the exercise of power at the lowest practicable level—by the individual where possible, by local or national authorities in preference to supranational bodies. ACRE understands that open societies rest upon the dignity and autonomy of the individual, ACRE recognises the equality of all citizens before the law, regardless of ethnicity, sex or social class. It rejects all forms of extremism, authoritarianism and racism, ACRE cherishes the important role of civil associations, families and other bodies that fill the space between the individual and the government. ACRE acknowledges the unique democratic legitimacy of the nation-state, ACRE is committed to the spread of free commerce and open competition, in Europe and globally. The ECR group is the third-largest group in the European Parliament, founded in 2009, before the ACRE was launched, the ECR brings together 75 MEPs from 16 countries. The ECR group is led by Syed Kamall of the British Conservative Party, the Group was officially announced during the 11–12 April 100th Committee of the Regions plenary session. The ECR Group was the first Group to be formed in the Committee of the Regions during the course of a mandate and was the first ECR Group to be formed outside of the European Parliament, the President of the Group is Cllr. Gordon Keymer CBE and the Vice Presidents are Dan Jiránek and Daiva Matonienė, the EC group is led by Samad Seyidov MP, of the New Azerbaijan Party. It has 31 members,26 of whom represent parties in the ACRE, the ECR group is led by Halldór Halldórsson of the Icelandic Independence Party

29.
Red states and blue states
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Since then, the use of the term has been expanded to differentiate between states being perceived as liberal and those perceived as conservative. All states contain both liberal and conservative voters and only appear red/blue on the map because of the winner-take-all system used by most states in the Electoral College. Indeed, until the 1980s, Republicans were often represented by blue, the current terminology of red states and blue states came into use in the United States presidential election of 2000 on an episode of the Today show on October 30,2000. According to The Washington Post, the terms were coined by journalist Tim Russert, the colors red and blue also are featured on the U. S. flag. Traditional political mapmakers, at least throughout the 20th century, have used blue to represent the modern-day Republicans and this may have been a holdover from the American Civil War, during which the predominantly Republican north was considered blue. However, at time, a maker of widely-sold maps accompanied them with blue pencils in order to mark Confederate force movements. The parties themselves had no official colors, with candidates variously using either or both of the color palette of red and blue. In 1908, The New York Times printed a special color map, using blue for Democrats and yellow for Republicans, the advent of color television prompted television news reporters to rely on color-coded electoral maps, though sources conflict as to the conventions they followed. One source claims that in the six elections prior to 2000 every Democrat, according to another source, in 1976, John Chancellor, the anchorman for NBC Nightly News, asked his networks engineers to construct a large illuminated map of the United States. The map was placed in the networks news studio. If Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate that year, won a state, it would light up in red, if Gerald Ford, NBC continued to use the color scheme employed in 1976 for several years. NBC newsman David Brinkley famously referred to the 1980 election map outcome showing Republican Ronald Reagans 44-state landslide as resembling a suburban swimming pool, CBS, from the 1984 election on, used the opposite scheme, blue for Democrats, red for Republicans. ABC used yellow for Republicans and blue for Democrats in 1976, however, in 1980 and 1984, ABC used red for Republicans and blue for Democrats. Similarly, in 1992 and 1996, at least one network would have used yellow to indicate a state won by Ross Perot, on Election Night that year, there was no coordinated effort to code Democratic states blue and Republican states red, the association gradually emerged. Partly as a result of this eventual and near-universal color-coding, the red states. After the results were final, journalists stuck with the scheme, as The Atlantics December 2001 cover story by David Brooks entitled, One Nation, Slightly Divisible. Thus, red and blue became fixed in the media and in peoples minds. Some Republicans argue the GOP should retain its link with blue

30.
United States Senate
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The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. S. From 1789 until 1913, Senators were appointed by the legislatures of the states represented, following the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The Senate chamber is located in the wing of the Capitol, in Washington. It further has the responsibility of conducting trials of those impeached by the House, in the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers. This idea of having one chamber represent people equally, while the other gives equal representation to states regardless of population, was known as the Connecticut Compromise, there was also a desire to have two Houses that could act as an internal check on each other. One was intended to be a Peoples House directly elected by the people, the other was intended to represent the states to such extent as they retained their sovereignty except for the powers expressly delegated to the national government. The Senate was thus not designed to serve the people of the United States equally, the Constitution provides that the approval of both chambers is necessary for the passage of legislation. First convened in 1789, the Senate of the United States was formed on the example of the ancient Roman Senate, the name is derived from the senatus, Latin for council of elders. James Madison made the comment about the Senate, In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people. An agrarian law would take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation, landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority, the senate, therefore, ought to be this body, and to answer these purposes, the people ought to have permanency and stability. The Constitution stipulates that no constitutional amendment may be created to deprive a state of its equal suffrage in the Senate without that states consent, the District of Columbia and all other territories are not entitled to representation in either House of the Congress. The District of Columbia elects two senators, but they are officials of the D. C. city government. The United States has had 50 states since 1959, thus the Senate has had 100 senators since 1959. In 1787, Virginia had roughly ten times the population of Rhode Island, whereas today California has roughly 70 times the population of Wyoming and this means some citizens are effectively two orders of magnitude better represented in the Senate than those in other states. Seats in the House of Representatives are approximately proportionate to the population of each state, before the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, Senators were elected by the individual state legislatures

31.
United States House of Representatives
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The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the Senate, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the House are established by Article One of the United States Constitution, since its inception in 1789, all representatives are elected popularly. The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435, the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof and is traditionally the leader of the controlling party. He or she and other leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conferences. The House meets in the wing of the United States Capitol. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a body in which each state was equally represented. All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates, the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. The House is referred to as the house, with the Senate being the upper house. Both houses approval is necessary for the passage of legislation, the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, the Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4,1789. The House began work on April 1,1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time, during the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives, However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery, One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, the war culminated in the Souths defeat and in the abolition of slavery. Because all southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, the years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Unions victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877, the ensuing era, the Democratic and the Republican Party held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw an increase in the power of the Speaker of the House

Though prominent as a Missouri Senator, Harry Truman had been vice president only three months when he became president; he was never informed of Franklin Roosevelt's war or postwar policies while vice president.

A two-party system is a party system where two major political parties dominate the government. One of the two parties …

In a two-party system, voters have mostly two options; in this sample ballot for an election in Summit, New Jersey, voters can choose between a Republican or Democrat, but there are no third party candidates.

The Whig Party was a political party active in the middle of the 19th century in the United States. Four United States …

Whig Party handbill for Clay–Frelinghuysen, 1844

An Available Candidate: The One Qualification for a Whig President—a political cartoon about the 1848 presidential election. It refers to Zachary Taylor or Winfield Scott, the two leading contenders for the Whig Party nomination in the aftermath of the Mexican–American War. Published by Nathaniel Currier in 1848, digitally restored.

Horace Greeley's New York Tribune—the leading Whig paper—endorsed Clay for President and Fillmore for Governor, 1844

In politics, centrism, the centre (British English)/(Canadian English) or the center (American English) is a political …

In 1990, Joachim Gauck (who is former German president, centrist politician and activist without party affiliation) took part in the Alliance 90, having become an independent after its merger with The Greens

Campaign for the Norwegian Centre Party at Nærbø: like its Finnish and Swedish counterparts, the party has a strong focus on decentralisation, rural and agrarian issues

Ross Perot, former United States presidential candidate in the 1992 and 1996 elections